The next Dodge Charger will ride on the same platform as the upcoming Alfa Romeo Giulia and has looks that resemble this 1999 concept car, according to Fiat Chrysler dealers in Las Vegas invited to see the car at a closed event on Monday. Also, there’s a convertible on the way called the Barracuda, too!
Automotive News has dispatches from the dealers who were actually at the meeting, held at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Details are scarce so far, but here’s what we’ve got:
The Barracuda convertible and next-generation Dodge Charger will be based on the flexible rear-wheel-drive platform designed for the return of the Alfa Romeo Giulia, which was first shown in Italy in June. It is part of FCA’s roughly $6 billion investment to resurrect and grow the Alfa Romeo brand to 400,000 units worldwide by 2018.
That makes sense. The Giulia uses a new rear- and all-wheel drive architecture adapted from the one that underpins the Maseratis Ghibli and Quattroporte, so it’s fitting it would make its way into other Fiat Chrysler products. The current Challenger and Charger platforms, which incorporate some Mercedes components from the Daimler era, is getting extremely long in the tooth.
The biggest news is that the next Charger was said to resemble the 1999 Dodge Charger RT Concept Vehicle, penned by famed designer Tom Gale. Or at least, that’s what the dealers said it looked like. The final product could be different, but it was apparently “swoopy” and well-received.